Posted by zeugma on February 24, 2004, at 20:10:30
In reply to Aricept Users for AD/HD: Do you notice a change??, posted by utopizen on February 24, 2004, at 18:24:02
If your diagnosis of narcolepsy is accurate, you'd want to stay as far away from something like Aricept as possible. The extremely brief REM latency that is diagnostic of the disorder is due to a hyper-activation of the cholinergic system and a corresponding weakness of the monoaminergic system. That is why narcoleptics are given antidepressants to manage the nighttime symptoms of narcolepsy. Cholinergic drugs would cause a hyper-activation of REM, exacerbating narcolepsy.
I suppose you could use Aricept or galantamine as a probe, and if it brings on a drastic worsening (chances are you'd know immediately) you could go in the other direction and try a more traditional approach to managing your sleep disorder. I can't imagine any MD worth his or her diploma advising anyone with narcolepsy to try this, however.
poster:zeugma
thread:317273
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040223/msgs/317305.html